Anyone use IBM Lotuus Symphony?

My sister has been having nothing but trouble with her old computer. Recently I completely wiped it and installed Windows 7, MSE, and LibreOffice. However, it has a tendency to freeze and lock up the whole computer, making her unable to save. AutoRecovery does recover everything done in the last 15 minutes, but he fact that it crashes is stressful as it requires a full reboot.

I can't really afford Microsoft office, and so would likme to keep using something Free. I did find IBM Lotus Symphony, which seems to be praised for it's reliability.

Anyone used Symphony? or should I just install Office on it?

thanks.

It used to be open office, then they split into libre office and open office, so have you tried open office yet? Since all those are free to download, you should try them all and the reason I'm saying this, I used open office and symphony and never had a problem of freezing or locking up, it could be her computer and only testing would show what works.

I couldn't vote because you didn't have OpenOffice listed.

Make sure you do your homework, IBM is merging Symphony with OpenOffice in early 2013. OOo was acquired by Apache from Oracle in the Fall of 2010.
IBM Lotus Symphony - Buzz: IBM's plans for the future of Lotus Symphony combining the best of Lotus Symphony with the new Apache OpenOffice Project.

Some links of interest:
http://www.sevenforums.com/software/123804-open-office-libre-office-whats-difference.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/software/174782-lotus-symphony-what-do-you-think-about.html

Abiword seems to be a nice program, but make sure you have the latest MS Visual C++ Redist. files.
One reason I did not go for it was lack of centralized support (Forum) it relies on Wiki's.

As far as LibreOffice crashing, I take it that the program only is what is crashing, and not the OS.
I searched the OOo forum, and found, see last post by floris_v: OpenOffice.org Forum :: LibreOffice 3.4 Writer Document Crashes - OO 3.3 OK

Another fix is to reset the User profile: [Tutorial] The OOo user profile (View topic)

If you get any pop-up crash reports, see if you can maximise it, and post a screenshot here, I'd be interested in helping you to solve it.

Would also need the specs of Sisters machine.

Check to make sure the LibreOffice folder has the JRE runtime environment installed.

Pete4 said:

It used to be open office, then they split into libre office and open office, so have you tried open office yet? Since all those are free to download, you should try them all and the reason I'm saying this, I used open office and symphony and never had a problem of freezing or locking up, it could be her computer and only testing would show what works.

Click to expand...

I originally had openOffice, but it doesn't support .docx which is a requirement.

I'm afraid i don't know the specs of my sister's computer, but it's a Compaq that's less than four years old and has intel graphics.

What happened apparently was that the whole program had locked up and stopped responding. She called me and i checked it via Logmein, but coundn't figure out how to get it to respiond again.

FuturDreamz said:

I originally had openOffice, but it doesn't support .docx which is a requirement.

Click to expand...

You may want to check again as of OO3.0 it does.

WRITER can of course read all your old Microsoft Word documents, or save your work in Microsoft Word format for sending to people who are still locked into Microsoft products. From version 3.0 WRITER can also open .docx files created with Microsoft Office 2007 or Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac OS X.

Source: Writer

Click to expand...

I opened one the other day I have 3.3, now I won't deny some users have problems opening them so YMMV.

says open, but nothing about writing to...

IMHO, it would provide comfort of mind for you, and your sibling if she would just purchase MSOffice.

If she is employed, have her check with her employer, MS runs purchasing agreements where employees are able to purchase MS products at a discount.
https://www.microsoft.com/industry/government/licensing/homeuseoptions.aspx

The same if she is a student.
https://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/buy/Pages/academicsavings.aspx

How much does she actually need to do with Office? If it's the basics, Office Live is free.